Symbol: Breath
Throughout the text, Wilhelm has trouble catching his breath; he is congested, exhausted with the simple task of breathing. He chokes on his Coke and breathes heavily through his mouth, as his father notes with disdain. This symbolizes the world's crushing of his life force, of his inability to be at ease with himself or the world.
Symbol: Water
Wilhelm feels like he is going to be engulfed by water. This flood symbolizes the Biblical flood's drowning all that is corrupt and evil. At the end of the novella, though, his tears similarly "flood" him but he is reborn, purified by water's cleansing power.
Symbol: Yom Kippur
Yom Kippur is the Jewish day of atonement, of confessing of sins and repenting. Wilhelm losing everything right before this holiday as well as his cathartic tears at the end of the novella symbolizes his cleansing.
Symbol: Pills
Wilhelm pops pills several times throughout the text, something which Dr. Adler chides him for. We do not know exactly what these pills are for; they can symbolize a sort of numbing or anesthetizing against the world's pain and his own suffering. They can blunt the edges but they cannot fully prevent the seeping in; thus, Wilhelm lets the floodgates open at the end of the novella and the pills can do nothing to stop it.
Symbol: Sheet
Lee J. Richmond suggests that when Dr. Adler hides under his sheet in the baths and tells Wilhelm to go away that it is symbolic of him disinheriting his son: "The father only retreats under a sheet, symbolic of his disinheritance of his child."
